Monday, June 9, 2014

Old Line Massacre - Apocalypse


Thanks for your patience, here is a huge dump of photos from the final day of the Old Line Massacre, the Apocalypse game. Each player fielded roughly 3,000 points and the variety of infantry, vehicles, and super-heavies was very impressive!

On the Traitor's side we had Chris Bowers (Emperor's Children), Jay Feigenheimer (Night Lords), Nate Taylor (Night Lords with Curze), and Marc Raley (Alpha Legion). Their three major objectives to hold were the three sections of the massive bastion you can see in the photos.

On the Loyalist side we had myself (Mechanicum), Ty Finochiarro/Jake Landis (Survivors mix of units), John Stiening (Sons of Horus), and Robin Everrett-McGuirl (Alpha Legion). Our three major objectives were the Skyshield Landing Pad (held by my Castellax and Thallax), the Reaver Titan itself, and a secure bunker on our right flank.

I won't go into too much detail, but instead let the photos do the talking.




































After four turns of fighting, we had smashed each other up pretty well. One section of the bastion had been destroyed, and my Reaver was down to 5 Hull points. Curze was in combat with the Contemptor dreadnoughts, and Traitor forces were struggling a little in the killing zones.

The final result was a considerable victory to the Loyalists (by about 20 VPs, if I recall correctly).

If you have any questions about the game/models, feel free to sound off below.

Cheers
Dave

21 comments:

  1. Loyalists won by 22 VP's in the end; mostly through wiping out whole units where we were unable to, and our collective failure to destroy that damn Reaver. Thanks for holding that flank and getting some spectacular shots Dave, I really appreciate the effort!

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    1. Thanks for that Nate. Such a very cool game, even with your Moritat popping up and taking out my Magos. ; )

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  2. Great rundown! I enjoyed how the pictures actually do tell the story of the game; it was interesting seeing what was there early on, and *not* there (because it was dead) in the later shots. ;)

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    1. It was definitely cool to see that progression. The waves of Loyalists who crashed against the bastion and were thrown back (or cut down) was particularly telling : )

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  3. Nice to see all these great models in action. How did you find the Mechanicum performed overall, Dave? I'm considering taking the plunge on some Thallax and Castellax to retrograde my own forces to Heresy-era spec.

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    1. Honestly, I had no real idea how good the Castellax and Thallax were until the Old Line Massacre. Initially I figured they were alright, but dished out too little for their points.

      Boy, was I wrong (mostly). They don't put out a lot of firepower, but they do last forever, particularly if they are in 4+ cover against weapons strength 9 or less. Their high toughness (5 for Thallax, 7 for Castellax) combined with their high wounds (3 and 4) and decent saves (4+ and 3+), these guys are tough to budge.

      After four turns of Traitors shooting at the 3 Castellax and 9 Thallax on top of the Skyshield, I still had two of each left standing.

      Pure magic : )

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  4. Dave, it's amazing how You enjoy the hobby is a great lugo see your work on the game table, congratulations to all your gaming group.

    A greeting.

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    1. Thanks Eli, it is a lot of fun to play games like this : )

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  5. That was amazing! Wasn't Ty responsible for an amazing battle report back in white dwarf that saw Cadian Guard go up against Plague Zombies and typhus etc? It had an awesome terrain board!

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    1. Hi Matt. It may have been Ty involved in some part of it all, but I think the report you are talking about took place on Canada at the HQ, I did the reporting, Dirty Steve took the photos, and I think it might have been JB Coulter who made that ruined cityscape.

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    2. Thanks for the reply. That had to be my favourite white dwarf! Still have it. One day I WILL make a board that cool. Ha ha. Anyway man, thanks again and your work is totally inspiring and awesome.

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  6. Absolutely beautiful! That looks as though it was a tremendously fun weekend, I'm very sorry to have missed it. Next heresy weekender that gets organized I'm going to be making a point to travel to!

    Thanks for sharing the pics!

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    1. It was definitely cool M7, and yes, you must make the next one (I'll post links here as soon as I hear about it).

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    2. Well, if Mordian's going maybe I'll show up too. ;)

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  7. Hi Dave, just a quick one, what was the Dreamforge Leviathan Mortis being used as (the skull-face mini-Titan)? I've not seen one in the flesh to know what kind of size they are.

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    1. Tom, the Mortis was being used as an Imperial Knight Paladin. An amusing aside is that at the other end of the table the guys were using the Paladin with 40K rules (the rapid firing battle cannon was St8 with two shots), while at my end we were working from the 30K books (St6 with three shots), completely unaware that each end was doing it differently until halfway through the game. it stands maybe an inch taller than the GW Knight and has quite a bit more bulk, but works very well.

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    2. Great, thanks! Great pictures, fantastic to see a change from the normal grey plastic/resin armies that are all too often fielded!

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  8. Beautiful photos and some fantastic armies. I'd love a little more detail on some of the action though. What happened to thunder hawk, did Conrad year apart all comers, were there any particular epic moments?

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    1. Hi Colonel, here are a few more details for you : )

      The Thunderhawk survived the game. After using its main gun to destroy one part of the Traitor bastion, it dropped off the three Contemptors (with 5 Kheres Assault Cannons between them). I think it gunned down a few other models, but certainly proved a morale buster for the Traitors when it arrived on a weakened flank.

      Curze did cut through quite a few models in combat (I'm not sure of his final count). In the last Loyalist turn of the game he came under fire from loads of units (including a few shots from the Reaver) and only suffered a couple of wounds at most. His saving throws were incredible. As the only Primarch on the field, he certainly lived up to reputation.

      A highlight for Nate was when his Night Lords Moritat leapt out of his Assault pod and unloaded two plasma pistols into my Archmagos (who was significantly tooled up). With something like 13 hits, and then 11 wounds, my Archmagos Prime failed 4 of his 3+ Invulnerable saves, just enough to see him killed in one fell swoop.

      Each side could, if they so desired, recycle a destroyed unit for the cost of an objective VP (although Curze and the Reaver were not eligible for recycling). During the game, the Traitors brought back their Warhound, and also the Alpha Legion Falchion. Had they actually been wiped out, I was tempted to bring back the Thallax unit, just to completely demoralize the Traitors ; )

      We also had quite a few Super Heavy explosions, but sadly none of them was able to take apart another vehicle.

      Hope that wets your whistle.

      Cheers
      Dave

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  9. Thanks for the three part round up and photos Dave! It was super great to see you over the full weekend and roll dice once more. Like olden times.

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